\u2605 The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.\u2605<\/p>\n
\u2605 To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here<\/a>! \u2605<\/p>\n \u2261 LIFETIME COLLEGE ATHLETES? \u2261<\/p>\n The settlement in the House vs. NCAA case, with its billions of dollars in payouts to collegiate athletes, primarily in football and men\u2019s basketball, is only the beginning of the remaking of college sports into something completely new.<\/p>\n Beyond universities playing their (mostly football and basketball) players, the framework that players can compete for four years in sports across five total years, is under fire and is being torn down in multiple \u2013 but not all \u2013 jurisdictions:<\/p>\n \u25cf Last December, Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia won an injunction<\/a> from the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, allowing him an extra year of eligibility by invalidating the NCAA rule that athletic participation at a junior college counts against the \u201cfive-year rule.\u201d The NCAA has appealed, but also had to relax its rules for now.<\/p>\n \u25cf In April of this year, Rutgers safety Jeff Elad received a preliminary injunction<\/a> from the U.S. District Court for New Jersey, also against enforcement of the five-year rule, as he played at a junior college and wants to play a fifth year of college football across seven seasons (including the Covid seasonal waiver).<\/p>\n Two basketball players have also sued the NCAA on its five-year rule regarding junior college participation, and other football players<\/a> have received injunctions or State temporary restraining orders related to the junior-college rule.<\/p>\n \u25cf In July, Nevada wide receiver Cortez Braham Jr. won a preliminary injunction<\/a> against the junior-college rule, but also challenged the five-year rule itself. Kansas City-based sports attorney Mit Winter \u2013 a former William & Mary basketball player \u2013 observed on his LinkedIn page:<\/p>\n \u201cIn the order granting the injunction, the court found the following:<\/p>\n \u201c\u2013 the five year and JUCO rules are commercial, because they limit the number of years an athlete can play college athletics and therefore limit the ability to be paid as a college athlete<\/p>\n \u201c\u2013 the rules have substantial anticompetitive effect and no procompetitive justifications<\/p>\n \u201c\u2013 that Braham will be irreparably harmed by not being allowed to play college athletics<\/p>\n \u201cAs with the other recents decisions granting preliminary injunctions in similar cases, I\u2019m sure the NCAA will appeal this one. Which means we\u2019ll have four appellate courts addressing these issues. This is a perfect situation for the Supreme Court to step in and settle the issues.\u201d<\/p>\n \u25cf Also in July, the NCAA won a case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, where the holding reversed a preliminary injunction<\/a> in favor of Wisconsin cornerback Nyzier Fourqurean to play a fifth season in five years.<\/p>\n Fourqurean filed another suit this week<\/a>, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, asking for another preliminary injunction to allow him to play; the hearing is slated for 27 August.<\/p>\n \u25cf The NCAA won another round<\/a> in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Monday (18th), where players from UCLA, USC and San Diego State were all denied preliminary injunctions against the five-year rule, adding to the confusion.<\/p>\n With different courts finding different results, the case of tailor-made for the U.S. Supreme Court, which has shown high interest in economic freedom and relaxing constraint wherever possible.<\/p>\n That means the five-year-rule could be eliminated by June of 2027 at the latest, opening the door to essentially \u201clifetime\u201d college players who can be on teams as long as they remain in school, earning bachelor\u2019s degrees, master\u2019s degrees and Ph.Ds and new formats not yet conjured up by athletic departments.<\/p>\n This is insanity.<\/p>\n The mission statement<\/a> of the national leader in athletic revenue in 2023 \u2013 The Ohio State University \u2013 states:<\/p>\n \u201cThe university is dedicated to:<\/p>\n \u201c\u25cf Creating and discovering knowledge to improve the well-being of our local, state, regional, national and global communities;<\/p>\n \u201c\u25cf Educating students through a comprehensive array of distinguished academic programs;<\/p>\n \u201c\u25cf Preparing a diverse student body to be leaders and engaged citizens;<\/p>\n \u201c\u25cf Fostering a culture of engagement and service.<\/p>\n \u201cWe understand that diversity and inclusion are essential components of our excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n Ten-year careers as middle linebackers are not identified as a core offering.<\/p>\n Everyone involved, whether players, parents, school officials, broadcasters and all the rest know this we are now in the era of professional U-23 sports, primarily football and basketball. To properly support the young men and women involved, the \u201ccollege sports\u201d fiction needs to be dropped.<\/p>\n Instead, college football and college basketball need to be become fully professionalized, with franchises separated from the schools and run either as a single-entity organization, or as independently-owned teams. They would remain on campus, with the \u201cteam\u201d or \u201cleague\u201d renting the stadium, practice field, dorms or other housing, and the associated sports-related intellectual property from the university and operating on the campus as other businesses do.<\/p>\n In turn, the rights and responsibilities of the players would be collectively bargained with the \u201cleague\u201d of whatever style it takes, and they would not be students. If they wish to attend, fine; this can also be part of the deal with the university and the collective-bargaining agreement. But let\u2019s drop the fiction of the student-athlete football or basketball player.<\/p>\n What does this have to do with the Olympic-sports world?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start by saying that if a privately-organized league of \u201ccollege\u201d teams in baseball, softball, gymnastics, tennis or other sports can make enough money to establish a separate, professional project, they should be able to, and pay the schools involved a fee for use of the facilities made available, intellectual property, and staff time \u2013 such as athletic trainers \u2013 if used for their athletes.<\/p>\n The Sports Examiner has proposed this before, in a 29 April 2024 column<\/a>, with research help from Texas-based NALathletics coach George Perry. Using the Equity in Athletics database of athletic department financial and participation data, Perry noted that 68 top schools in the leading collegiate conferences reported $8.57 billion in total spending and $4.76 billion in spending outside of football and basketball.<\/p>\n The \u201cnon-revenue\u201d sports at these schools actually brought in about $1.10 billion (!) and a close guess on \u201cnon-revenue\u201d sports costs is $2.14 billion, meaning a \u201cfee\u201d from the football and basketball \u201ccollege leagues\u201d of $1.04 billion a year would cover the costs of maintaining the \u201cother\u201d college programs such as gymnastics, swimming, track and field and so on. If those sports \u2013 on a national basis \u2013 can become self-sufficient in their own league, they can leave too.<\/p>\n Just looking at the college football television contracts alone, the big-four leagues earned $2.72 billion for the 2024 season, will earn $2.88 billion for 2025 and $3.71 billion for 2026. (Please refer to the April 2024 column<\/a> for many more calculations.)<\/p>\n There\u2019s plenty of money to cover this kind of arrangement. The players will win, as they will be professionals; the schools will win as they can turn their \u201cpro teams\u201d over to true professionals and fans will still stream in to their regular tail-gate spots on fall Saturdays. The \u201cnon-revenue\u201d sports will be supported by the \u201cpro\u201d teams on campus and can offer scholarship contracts to students who can actually fulfill the role of \u201cstudent-athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n Are there a lot more details to this? Yes, of course. But it is possible to leave the fiction of a \u201cstudent-athlete\u201d playing college football behind.<\/p>\n This will not happen because of lawyers or players or athletic directors or broadcasters. Only university presidents \u2013 who are the NCAA, by the way \u2013 have the power to shape this new format and leave the hypocrisy of the imploding current system behind.<\/p>\n Rich Perelman \u2605 Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here<\/a>.
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